Tell ‘em it’s just human nature…
I was reading a book to my daughter tonight and got a good laugh.
The book was a book of Bible stories that was given to her when she was born by my mom’s best friend. My daughter has only recently gotten to be old enough to really grasp the stories. So we have started reading a few each night and talking about them.
Tonight, one of the stories we read was about Moses. Specifically, it was about the Israelites crossing through the parted waters of the Red Sea.
When we got to the part of the story where Moses puts up his staff and the waters crash down upon the Egyptians, the book reads, “The Israelites were amazed at God’s power, and praised Him and quit complaining… at least for a little while.”
I just got a kick out of how it was phrased: “at least for a little while.” Isn’t that the way it goes? We pray for a miracle, a blessing from God. We get it We praise God, we are amazed by Him and His power. We comment on this life changing event. And for a few days we really are changed.
And then we go back to our whiny, complaining selves.
Oh, we can’t really help it. It is our human nature. But isn’t it funny, in a kind of sad way, how we are so quick to forget the miracles in our lives and to jump on the junk? The entire book of Exodus is such a great example of that side of human nature.
Israelites: Rescue us from Pharoah!
God: I’m taking you to the Promised Land.
Israelites: The Egyptians are coming! Save us!
God: I’ll cause the Red Sea to swallow them up, after parting it to give you safe passage.
Israelites: We need food! We are starving in the desert!
God: Every morning there will manna to eat, along with other things, and water to drink.
Israelites: …
Well, you get the idea.
Even after miracle upon miracle handed to them, they balked, whined and sinned. We say, “If God parted the Red Sea, I would never doubt Him again.”
Really? I bet if we all stop to think about it, we can come up with miracle after miracle in our own lives. Maybe not the parting of the Red Sea, but a miracle just the same.
It may be human nature to whine and complain, but it isn’t God’s nature.
July 28th, 2009 at 9:19 am
So I got a miracle this week!!! I had been praying for a friend of mine who was diagnosed by “specialist” to have cancer in her uterus. This friend has yet to have children and was afraid that this was about to be taken away from her. The dr’s wanted to do radiation right away because of the size of this tumor. She chose instead to have surgery to remove it first! I had been praying to God to let her recieve a miracle let the tumor be gone and her ability to someday have babies be in tact. As well as many others were praying for her as well! Well, it turns out the tumor was not in her uterus and it really wasn’t as deep as the dr’s had originally said either so much in fact that when they opened her up it “popped” (dr’s words) right out of her. I see this as a miracle and will definately try to remember this when the world says things are impossible!!! God is GREAT!!!
May 26th, 2010 at 7:53 am
wow
June 4th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
inspiring…
June 26th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
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